lsquare

Which HK SIM are you using? Which plan are you using and can you pay online with a foreign credit card?

lsquare

Ibis is an Accors brand if I’m not mistaken. The login process that you described isn’t how things are done at the Chinese brands that I have stayed at.

synthkeys

In the past, I've used both China Mobile HK and China Unicom HK pay as you go SIM cards that offer free data roaming in China.

China Unicom
China Mobile

They both offer SIM cards that can be ordered and delivered to any address and paid with a foreign credit card. There are shops both landside and airside in HKG that sell them as well and many shops they can be purchased in HK. Many of those SIM cards can be re-charged via their website using a foreign credit card if you run out of data.

I went through the trouble of getting a 2 year contract SIM with China Mobile which requires proof of address in HK, which I don't have. I used a free account with tiptrans to give me an HK mailing address. China mobile sent a proof of address letter which I paid tiptrans a fee to have forwarded to my US address. That letter contained a code that I needed to enter with my account for address verification. It's not cheap, I pay $216 HKD per month for 6BG of data with free LTE roaming in China but it's super fast and I can access anything bypassing the GFW.

Many of my US colleagues that also travel to China use T-Mobile which offers pretty liberal international roaming. I use Verizon in the US which is too costly for long term roaming ($10 USD per day). Any international data roaming provider will bypass the GFW so if you're provider has a good plan see if that works for you.

STS-134

I've looked at both websites and they seem to not have an option to deliver to an address inside (Mainland) China. If you try to select it, you'll get a pop-up message like: "Cross Border King Mainland China-HK Prepaid SIM 4G Hong Kong Number (Stored-value HK$99) does not support this shipping area".

Really stupid that they can ship it to Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, which is quite literally the antipode of Hong Kong, but can't ship to Shenzhen, just across the border.


I use a China Unicom HK card. It can be recharged online with a Visa card, however, Chase cards don't work because Chase doesn't properly support Verified by Visa.

Does this 2 year contract SIM have a mainland number on it? And can the service on it be "suspended" for something like HK$3-20/month?

trueblu

Because it's cheaper?

Unlike some of the posters here, I can't expense VPN...over the last 8 years, having annual subscription to EXp, if I was paying monthly, I would have paid for an additional couple of years' service. And the reality of China is, there aren't that many reliable players...

From your posts, you have a lot of extra time on your hands with your court cases and all. For me, I prefer to have convenience. I actually pay for two commercial VPN services, since the chance of one of them working at any one time is reasonably high (though not 100%). I also have access to two academic VPNs on top of that...but ironically, they are the most flakey of the lot.

Although VPN is not expensable for me, it is indispensable for my work and quality of life in China...and "expensive" is all relative. In total per year, it comes to the price of a couple of decent meals for a service that myself, my wife and my oldest child all use. On a per hourly use, that's pretty decent value.

tb

lsquare

Why did you sign a two year contact? You get an even better rate?

lsquare

Thx for letting me know. Does AMEX, Citi, or BoA cards work?

Which HK Unicom plan are you on? How much are you paying?

synthkeys

At the time with pay as you go, I think I was paying something like 120 HKD for 2 GB of data. This monthly plan gives me 6GB for 216 HKD. If i went to the Shim Sha Tsui market in HK, I'm sure I can do much better price wise. However, I also value convenience and I'm willing to pay for it.

Another reason I went for the contract was the idea of getting a Chinese number as well as the HK number on a single SIM. But at the time I got it, March 2018, there was additional restrictions on ID verification for getting the Chinese number and it couldn't be done, YMMV. I've never tried to go back and get this changed. This year I ended getting a Chinese SIM anyway in my dual SIM phone to keep my bank account open.

If you are in SZ and have the unlimited entry visa, I wouldn't be surprised if they sell HK SIM cards right over the border from Futian Checkpoint/Lok Ma Chau. I'm sure the shopping malls in Sheng Shui have mobile shops selling these cards. I got my first on a run to Tuen Mun and did the contract in a shop in Ma On Shan.

If you look at tiptrans they give you 3 addresses in HK, SZ and Germany. If you have it shipped to the HK address and contact them beforehand, they can transfer the package to you in SZ. You'd need to contact them about this and of course a fee would apply.

lsquare

I didn’t know it was possible to have two numbers with one physical SIM. How would the phone manage that? I’ll be back in HK in about two weeks, but not sure if I’ll have to look into it. I’m not hopeful since I don’t have Chinese ID, number, or address.

GiantCow

That could be the deal I signed up for, I can't remember.

Re: hotel internet - the last time I stayed in a hotel in Beijing was at a Westin and pretty sure internet just needed a room number.

lsquare

Like I said, I was shocked that I can login to internet at the Marriott properties without a Chinese number. Just need room and last name to login.

STS-134

Well even Exp, which is an expensive VPN, is only around $150/year, and the discount gets you down to around $100/year, so the delta is only around $50/year. But if it should stop working before 8 months, you'd save more money by just dropping them when it stopped working, as well as gain more leverage to push them to fix the problems.

If you look at their website, their prepaid products and their postpaid products are two separate things. In particular, you cannot get dual number SIM cards prepaid.

Citi (Costco Visa) works, and that's what I recharge it with. I have a prepaid SIM which has a fee of HK$6/month, which is less than US$1. I keep it charged to avoid expiration, and select the plan I need when I arrive in China.

The phone manages this by just ringing when someone calls either of its numbers. If you are in HK, it's better if people call the HK number, and if you are in the mainland, it's better if people call the mainland number. You will get the call either way, but it's cheaper if people call you at the "proper" number. If people call the number associated with the location you are not in, then there are fees for airtime.

Unfortunately, no one sells dual number SIM cards prepaid anymore. You can get them postpaid, but you need to show a passport or resident ID card for the mainland number.

Hilton works that way as well. And practically any hotel chain that large numbers of foreigners are expected to stay at. One hotel I stayed at, a local brand but which is very popular with foreigners, even provided a cell phone with mobile hotspot, Google Maps, and HK SIM, I'm guessing for foreigners who got caught unprepared without a VPN.

trueblu

...which equates to $400 over the last 8 years. Perhaps even more than for a contested CA traffic violation??

And regarding your perception of pressure to get "things fixed"...that's really an issue about tragedy of the commons. So any individual's behaviour is irrelevant as a driver, and unlike most tragedy of the commons cases, my personal ethics don't even come into play. In reality, when Exp is unreliable, so are almost all other VPN providers. So switching from one to another in serial fashion is just hassle, more expensive, and unlikely to yield better results. However, as I said, my approach (which equates in total cost the same as paying Exp month to month, so this ISN'T just about money) is to pay for two providers. The reality is that services are rarely down 100% of the time for all providers during "service interruption"...but at any one instant in time, one service may work and another one won't...so by paying for 2 providers, it's almost never that I'm without service. That wouldn't be true by sticking to just one provider, even with switching . But please, do insist you are right.

As I said, it's horses for courses. You love campaigning on all sorts of matters that I don't seem to get riled about. But it's possible the opposite is true on a whole bunch of other stuff that's way OT for this forum.

tb

Loren Pechtel

At this point it's more likely than not that I won't get a connection at all, and if I get a connection there's often no traffic through it.

lsquare

With regards to Express, can I configure my iPad without downloading any apps?

Btw, I notice internet speeds vary between the Marriott properties. I have been in HZ for about a week and stayed at 3 different properties, Renaissance, Courtyard Qianjiang, and now at Marriott Qianjiang, and I’m getting the best experience with the Marriott Qianjiang. Not sure if it’s a more expensive hotel so the infrastructure is better. I also wonder if using a VPN will deliver better speed since it’ll avoid Chinese firewall?